The Hill

Twenty GOP senators voted against legislation approved by the Senate late Friday that would bolster Social Security benefits for over 2 million American citizens working in a range of occupations. 

The legislation, dubbed the Social Security Fairness Act, will rescind two statutes that have decreased benefits to an array of individuals working as teachers, firefighters, local and state police and others within the public sector. 

It was approved in a 76-20 vote. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Joe Manchin (I-W. Va.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) did not vote.

President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law. It was also backed by President-elect Trump and was approved by the House with bipartisan support in November.

Critics led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued the bill was expensive and could lead to problems for Social Security going forward.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the legislation will add $196 billion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years and speed up Social Security’s projected insolvency by six months.

There are the 20 Senators that voted against the Social Security bill.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.)

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.)

Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.)

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.)

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)

Johnson earlier this week told The Hill that the bill was “way too broad.”

“It provides benefits to people who aren’t harmed by the fix from the 1970s,” he said, referring to the Government Pension Act.

“I would view it as grotesquely irresponsible,” he said.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah)

Lee was a vocal critic of the legislation who argued the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) was enacted in 1983 to “fix serious problems in how Social Security benefits were calculated.”

He acknowledged that the laws designed to keep people from receiving more than they earned in benefits may have needed to be finetuned but argued that repealing WEP and GPO altogether would return the nation to “a broken model that unfairly rewards some at the expense of others.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.)

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

Paul offered an amendment to the legislation to offset the cost of the expanded benefits by gradually raising the retirement age from 67 to 70 over 12 years.

It was easily defeated, only getting three votes.

“If we give new people more money, we have to take it from somewhere. We have to either borrow it or print it, but it has to come from somewhere,” Paul said.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah)

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)

Thune, the incoming Senate GOP leader, earlier this week said he opposed the bill but that GOP senators should make their own calls on whether to support it.

In the end, more GOP senators backed the legislation than opposed it.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.)

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), one of the Republicans who backed the bill, earlier this week said restoring millions of Americans’ full Social Security benefits wouldn’t cost that much in the grand scale of Washington spending.

“That was simple logic for me, even though I’ve been one of the loudest fiscal conservatives,” he said. “It was addressing in my opinion a real issue of inequity.”